Why Russians Will Never Turn on Putin w/ Konstantin Kisin

do you have a sense of what the anti-putin sentiment is or if at all has it grown like has it been Russia yeah I think it probably has grown a little bit uh but um I if I'm correct in understanding your question you're sort of going like how soon are the Russian people going to rise up and overthrow Putin uh not very soon I think it's why is that not very not not not not soon yeah more like never really because that's not that's not what we do in Russia okay so I it's very similar to to China because the the same same questions are being asked right now about about what's going on and I'm like sorry I don't think change is coming out no no in China it's a bit different I I do you know I think the the the resentment is actually against specific policies which which is much better which is much easier to achieve than than freedom and democracy these kind of more abstract Concepts um and and perhaps the the government actually be a bit more responsive to to these uh limited policies to add to that in in Russia there's also like a a cultural Dimension to her which is uh the most important thing in in Russian politics is to have a strong leader and this is a product of centuries of events that taught Russians that basically at any time you have a weak leader bad things happen um there's a period in Russian history called times of trouble which is the end of the uh rurikid Dynasty um where Ivan the Terrible and by the way this is to to reinforce our point do you know that Ivan the Terrible isn't called Ivan the Terrible in Russian because to be feared is good even if you're terrible see if you've got someone who's Fierce and terrible you go well at least he's fearsome right whereas in many other parts of the world you go he's terrible let's get rid of him right um and what Russians learned is when you don't have a strong leader as you didn't have in times of trouble and several other times bad things happen famines happen the wars happen you get invaded people die Etc and so there's this historical um wound almost in Russian mythology which is like you better make sure you you bet you have a strong leader and you back him to the hill now the good thing about that is when the leader dies uh as long as you know it's seen to be legitimate you know it was a natural death or whatever um the country can flip overnight I mean Joseph Stalin dies in 1953 Khrushchev comes in and goes and that really wasn't the good stuff you know we we we that's not the communism that we were trying to build and everybody moves on all of a sudden right um so these things can flip very very quickly uh when when the leadership changes now are people gonna overthrow Vladimir Putin no is there going to be a palace coup I can't imagine one you know but if if the time comes and the three of us are still alive when he he goes one way or another um then then you get uh there is the potential for the country to go in a completely different direction completely different um is that likely though I don't think so because Russian culture doesn't change and if you value stability and strength above all well why would you need democracy democracy is kind of like a rich people's game well so I I you know I grew up in a place where where we also had a very strong kind of heavy-handed kind of government and the the leader of Singapore the founder of Singapore uh prime minister Lee Kuan Yew actually said this I'm going to read you the quote and I grew up knewing this now if democracy will not work for the Russians a white Christian people can we assume that it will naturally work with Asians what a racist um yeah that is a direct quote that is a direct quote by uh Lee Kuan Yew um that is what he thought about about yeah about sort of like cultural determinism this is the thing that there's a weird kind of Western arrogance that these sort of powerful you know equal rival societies Russia who we've you know sparred with for a hundred years that they're all of a sudden going to change their behavior we saw this when we were fighting the Arabs during the Iraq War the idea was what they really need is Western democracy accompanied by conversions to our capitalist model and Christian missionaries entering the country and it seemed it root like a nonsensical idea like this may well not work in Iraq and in fact you saw the Sunni Shia fighting and so on I mean immediately that this began so it's the same thing I mean I constant in hearing you said is that had been my suspicion that there was a zero percent chance that a Russian strong man who's doing a pretty competent job is going to be removed from power for scoring a tie in a war but I just again it was one of those I don't know really kind of things but the same thing in China I mean she's not going anywhere I mean what you're seeing actually I can read Chinese in a cute like first grade level and I mean the tweets on Chinese Twitter today are basically indicating they're going to open the country like one of them earlier today said you only have to go to the covet Center if you want to that's my half-assed translation but I mean what they're saying is the the biggest most hated portion of this you go to this sort of camp for two weeks is ending and in a couple of days they're going to start unlatching the buildings and so on and that's going to be the response to the protests to the very limited riotic it's not going to be the Communist Party steps down they're they're intervening steps you can take before becoming Americans right completely unfortunately and uh no no you well it's almost like cultures are different well in Melissa right it's almost like that not everyone in the world thinks like us uh and uh you're right it's Western arrogance because you see this now with the World Cup and Qatar uh you don't say that and look it's the obvious disclaimer yes I condemn the way the Qatar treats gay people and women and Michael workers of course I do I I I do I think it's terrible I don't agree with it but is it Fair of us to give them the World Cup right didn't have to happen it was given to them by FIFA you give them the World Cup and then you come to their country and you go oh this is wrong we don't like this and your laws on this side of the complete well I I mean I don't know that it is you know even though I think those things are very very wrong and bad and wrong and bad you know and wrong but went bad and wrong but what you know do different cultures you have different values and you you can't I don't think the West job is to go around to every other country in the world and tell them how to live their lives like we don't want people to tell us how to live our lives right why why should people in other countries do the same and Russia has its own culture and I'm afraid in Russian culture they're gonna stick with whoever the top dog is until he stops being top dog but then there's a there's a opportunity for change the problem is the it's a kind of self-correcting mechanism in Russia because why do you why has Putin cracked down why has he become more authoritarian over time why did he invade Ukraine in 2014 and now again and why did he want the Sochi Olympics so much and all of that because as a country gets richer and more stable and by the way as a fierce critic of Putin's I will give him this under his watch I'm not saying because of his actions but under his watch the country became much more stable and much more prosperous and I actually in fact I take back what I said it was thanks in many ways to to his policies now you may disagree with his policies in some ways but they did achieve stability uh they ended the war in chechnya uh the and they dealt with the terrorism problem in Russia over time and which was hugely significant and the country became more prosperous and stable in in every other way during his time right so um what happens when you get to that point well suddenly people go oh okay well we've got stability we've got safety we've got economic Prosperity I'm making more money well maybe maybe we should start thinking about you know change you know democracy or doing things a bit differently people start to ask questions you know why do we need the strongman leader if if we're prosperous stable and comfortable and there are no terrorists right when we had terrorism we needed a strong man leader right but do we still need to have him well maybe not people start asking questions right and that's the point at which you go we have external enemies guys look at these evil ukrainians look at what they're doing the evil Americans have enclosed they're in cloaking Russia and in their aggressive mentality or whatever it is the the the the generation of foreign threats and internal crackdowns are a product of the fact that Vladimir Putin came to power at a time when the three of us were worried about the millennium bug right he's been in power since basically two thousand so he's he's there is going to be a natural kind of diminishing of his position unless he takes steps to reinforce it and the war in Ukraine and taking Crimea were huge boosters popularity taking Crimea in 2014 basically made him invulnerable in Russian politics right like there was no questioning him after that like this is a guy who's taken back Russian territory um this is this is how Russia Works sorry foreign

Channel: FAIR Perspectives

Views: 15,803

Keywords: #fairperspectives, #angeleduardo, #podcast, #rationality, #optimism, #thelanguageinstinct, #rationalism, #enlightmentnow, #thebetterangelsofournature, #thesenseofstyle, #theblankslate, #howthemindworks, #race, #seggregation, #media, #policeviolence, #freedomofspeech, #notforprofit, #freespeech

Id: RbcLXSWfZZE

Length: 10min 2sec (602 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 22 2022